This invention relates to improved safety wheels for use on trucks or other heavy motor vehicles, to maintain support for the vehicle if a tire blows outs or for any other reason becomes deflated or under inflated.
Many lives have been lost as the result of the deflation of a tire while a vehicle is traveling at a fairly high rate of speed. Trucks and other very heavy vehicles are especially dangerous in this respect, particularly when the blow out or other tire deflation occurs on the front wheels of the vehicle.
Various attempts have been made in the past to provide secondary support for the vehicle at a wheel location in the case of a blow out or the like. For example, some prior patents have shown rigid elements positioned within an inflatable tire, and adapted to limit the extent to which the tire can deflate and thereby support the vehicle even though all air is lost from the tire. It has also been suggested that a safety flange be attached to the wheel mounting lug bolts by which the wheel is connected to the vehicle, and project outwardly to a peripheral edge of a diameter somewhat less than the external diameter of the tire to engage a road surface when the tire loses inflation.